Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, a diet supplement may be paid where a special diet is prescribed for an individual as a result of a specified medical condition. Any person receiving a Social Welfare or Health Service Executive payment and who has been prescribed a special diet for medical reasons and whose means are insufficient to meet their needs, may qualify for a diet supplement.
Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme an exceptional needs payment may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources. There is no automatic entitlement to this payment. Each application is determined by the Executive based on the particular circumstances of the case and for that reason, it is not possible to state categorically that an exceptional needs payment would or would not be made in respect of any particular once-off essential need. However exceptional needs payments would not normally be made in respect of the maintenance of a particular diet for cultural reasons.